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treebearddude, think about this for a second
if you ever get buried, your only hope of survival is a good, functioning beacon
if your friends ever get buried, their only hope of survival is you being able to use your good, functioning, modern (3-antenna) beacon QUICKLY
do you really want to cheap out on your most vital piece of equipment?
the Pieps DSP sport is largely considered the best beacon for the money, but look around and you should be able to find something good in the $250 range, like the ARVA Evo4 on backcountry.com
patagonialukeYeah I'd expect to spend $200+ on a beacon, unfortunately it's just not something you should/can skimp on.
Keep an eye on the TGR gear swap thread, there's often people selling lightly used ones for cheapish. I'd look into rental options too, my university has a very cheap gear rental program so that's what I did for a few months till I knew I was going to go out enough to warrant buying my own, and then waited for a deal.
treebeardif you do end up buying used, make damn sure there's not even a hint of corrosion in the battery chamber. it's something that's easy to overlook but can really fuck with things
jackson_sandellI'm assuming it fucks with reliability of the battery and the actual usage of the beacon?
treebeardyep, just like with any electronic, when the power supply gets wonky it can cause the rest of the device to behave erratically. this can range from inaccurate battery percentage reading (telling you it's at 90% then quickly dying), up to issues with transmitting or receiving a signal
jackson_sandellSounds like my phone, even with a lifeproof fre power case, it still gets cold and dies even when it's like at 75%...
jackson_sandellSo my class for AIARE is on Tuesday, but we have two like "in-class" sessions before we formally go out for two straight days on Vail Pass for in the field training. I got a shovel, probe, and a backpack all ordered, I just really need a beacon. I've looked and realistically beacons are around maybe $175-300, anybody have an old beacon that is cheaper that they're willing to sell?
